Pennywise Voice Changer: Sound Like the IT Clown
The Pennywise voice changer effect is one of the most requested character voices in the horror community — and for good reason. That unmistakable combination of deep pitch, creeping rasp, and sing-song cadence has terrified audiences through two distinct performances across three decades. Whether you want to prank friends on Discord, build a TikTok horror persona, or run a Halloween soundboard, this guide breaks down the vocal anatomy of both IT versions and gives you a practical, step-by-step path to replicating them live.
TL;DR
- Tim Curry’s 1990 Pennywise sits in a controlled baritone with theatrical rasp — easier to replicate, pitch shift of -2 to -3 semitones plus mid-range distortion.
- Bill Skarsgård’s 2017 version is deeper and stranger — -4 to -5 semitones, nasal resonance boost, hollow reverb, and unpredictable sing-song delivery.
- Real-time voice changers are required for live Discord, gaming, and streaming use — post-production DAWs only work on recorded files.
- Hotkey toggling lets you switch the effect on and off mid-stream without breaking immersion.
- VoxBooster handles the virtual mic routing on Windows 10/11 with no kernel driver, no anti-cheat conflicts.
Why Pennywise Has Two Completely Different Voices
Before touching any settings, it is worth understanding why these two performances sound so different — because getting the effect right means targeting the correct version.
Tim Curry (1990 TV miniseries): Curry played Pennywise as an overtly theatrical villain, drawing on vaudeville and circus traditions. His voice is a controlled baritone — not unnaturally deep — with deliberate, almost musical inflection. The scariness comes from the unsettling contrast between friendly, lilting delivery and threatening content. Curry uses volume dynamics aggressively: he can drop to a conspiratorial near-whisper and then rise sharply into mocking laughter. The rasp in his voice is moderate and feels intentional, like a showman roughening his voice for effect.
Bill Skarsgård (2017 IT / 2019 IT Chapter Two): Skarsgård’s approach is fundamentally different. The voice is much lower and more hollowed-out, with a quality that sound engineers sometimes describe as “subterranean.” He adds an unusual nasality and employs a sing-song inflection pattern that follows children’s rhyme rhythms before breaking into something alien and wrong. There is a wet, reverberant quality to many of his deliveries, as though the voice is coming from inside a large, wet space — which fits the Derry sewers setting. Skarsgård also uses deliberate pitch breaks and falsetto intrusions at unexpected moments, which are very difficult to replicate mechanically.
Understanding this distinction is the foundation. These are not the same voice with minor variations — they are two different artistic constructions that require different technical approaches.
The Vocal Anatomy: What Makes the Clown Voice Work
A clown voice changer needs to target four specific acoustic elements to be convincing:
1. Fundamental pitch. Pennywise speaks in a register below most adult male voices. Curry sits around 90-110 Hz fundamental; Skarsgård drops lower, around 75-90 Hz in his most intense deliveries. Both are achievable with pitch shifting software, though Skarsgård’s range starts to show pitch-shift artifacts at extreme settings.
2. Rasp and breathiness. Both versions add a layer of textured distortion — not electronic, but more like the controlled rasp of a theatrical singer. This is created by slight saturation or harmonic excitation in the mid-range. It adds menace without sounding robotic.
3. Nasal resonance. The clown character creates an exaggerated nasal quality — a boost in the 800 Hz to 1.5 kHz range — that gives the voice its “hollow” puppet-like character. Skarsgård’s version emphasizes this more than Curry’s.
4. Reverb and space. Pennywise’s voice often sounds like it is coming from somewhere else — a larger, wetter space than the scene the character is actually in. This is a production choice in the films, but replicating it with a medium-wet reverb (decay around 1.5-2.5 seconds) adds a lot of character.
Tim Curry’s 1990 Pennywise: Settings and Approach
The 1990 version is the more accessible starting point. Here are the parameters that get you into that register:
Pitch and Tone
- Pitch shift: -2 to -3 semitones below your natural voice. Curry’s voice is not cartoonishly deep — it is just low enough to feel authoritative and slightly off.
- Low-mid boost: Add +3 to +4 dB around 180-250 Hz. This adds the chest resonance that gives the voice its theatrical weight.
- High-mid cut: Reduce 2-4 kHz by -2 to -3 dB. This softens the “modern voice” quality and adds a slightly dated, almost radio-drama warmth.
- High-shelf cut: Roll off above 8 kHz by -3 dB. This removes crispness and adds age to the voice.
Rasp and Character
- Add light saturation or harmonic excitation in the 400-800 Hz range. In a voice changer with a distortion/warmth parameter, set this to 15-25% of the available range — enough to hear texture, not enough to sound like a phone call in a horror movie.
- A small room reverb (pre-delay around 20ms, decay around 0.6 seconds, 15% wet) adds theatrical depth without the hollow sewer quality of Skarsgård’s version.
Performance Tips
The most important aspect of Curry’s Pennywise is the delivery, not the processing. The voice works because of:
- Sharp volume dynamics — quiet and conspiratorial, then suddenly loud and mocking
- Over-articulated consonants, particularly hard ‘k’ and ‘t’ sounds
- Drawn-out vowels on key words: “Youuuu’ll float too”
- Laughter that starts as a chuckle and escalates into an open-mouthed cackle
No amount of pitch shifting compensates for flat, monotone delivery. The voice effect is a frame — the performance is what fills it.
Bill Skarsgård’s 2017 Pennywise: Settings and Approach
The 2017 version is significantly more demanding. Skarsgård trained his voice for the role and incorporated some unusual physical techniques — including the ability to move his eyes independently, which helped create the character’s alien quality. The voice processing has to compensate for what he achieves through physical performance.
Pitch and Tone
- Pitch shift: -4 to -5 semitones. This is noticeably deeper and starts to introduce pitch-shift artifacts in most software. High-quality pitch shifting with formant preservation (or separate formant shift) produces cleaner results at this depth.
- Formant shift: If your voice changer has independent formant control, add a slight downward formant shift of about -0.5 to -1 unit. This prevents the “barrel” quality that comes from large pitch shifts and adds genuine vocal tract weight.
- Sub-bass boost: Add +4 to +5 dB around 60-90 Hz for subterranean presence.
- Nasal mid-boost: +3 dB around 800 Hz to 1.2 kHz. This is the hollow, puppet-like nasal resonance that makes the 2017 voice so strange.
- High-mid dip: -3 dB around 3-4 kHz, same as the Curry version but slightly more aggressive.
Reverb and Space
The 2017 Pennywise benefits significantly from reverb. Use a medium hall or large room setting:
- Pre-delay: 30-40ms (creates a slight sense of distance)
- Decay: 1.5-2.0 seconds (the “sewer” space)
- Wet mix: 25-35% (present but not swimming in it)
This wet reverb is partly what makes the 2017 voice feel like it is coming from somewhere else, even when the character is standing right in front of a scene.
The Sing-Song Problem
The most difficult element of Skarsgård’s performance is the unpredictable pitch modulation — the sing-song pattern that follows nursery-rhyme rhythms and then breaks into something wrong. This is mostly a performance skill, not something you can synthesize with processing.
The closest approximation:
- Exaggerate the pitch variation in your natural speech by consciously raising and lowering pitch on alternating syllables
- Insert deliberate pitch breaks — drop suddenly to a monotone mid-sentence
- Practice on phrases that Pennywise actually uses: “You’ll float too,” “Beep beep, Richie,” “We all float down here”
Comparison Table: 1990 vs 2017 Pennywise Voice Settings
| Parameter | Tim Curry (1990) | Bill Skarsgård (2017) |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch shift | -2 to -3 semitones | -4 to -5 semitones |
| Formant shift | None needed | -0.5 to -1 unit (if available) |
| Low-mid boost | +3-4 dB @ 200 Hz | +4-5 dB @ 80 Hz (sub-bass) |
| Nasal mid-boost | Minimal | +3 dB @ 800-1200 Hz |
| High-mid cut | -2 to -3 dB @ 3 kHz | -3 dB @ 3-4 kHz |
| Reverb type | Small room | Medium hall / large room |
| Reverb decay | ~0.6 seconds | 1.5-2.0 seconds |
| Wet mix | 15% | 25-35% |
| Rasp/saturation | 15-25% (mid-range) | 20-30% (lower mid) |
| Difficulty to replicate | Medium | Hard |
Real-Time vs. Post-Production: Which Approach to Use
The right tool depends entirely on what you are trying to do with the effect.
| Use Case | Real-Time Voice Changer | Post-Production (DAW) |
|---|---|---|
| Discord prank calls | Required | Not possible |
| Twitch/YouTube live stream | Required | Not possible |
| Gaming (Among Us, etc.) | Required | Not possible |
| TikTok voiceover (pre-recorded) | Works | Also works |
| YouTube video narration | Possible | Better control |
| Podcast episode | Possible | Better control |
| Experimenting with settings | Good for live testing | Better for precision work |
| Formant-accurate shift | Available in quality tools | Limited in most free DAWs |
For Discord, gaming, and live streaming — which are the main use cases for a Pennywise voice changer — you need a real-time tool that presents a virtual microphone to your system. This is also what you need for [voice changer Discord setups](INTERNAL: /blog/voice-changer-discord) where you want your character voice to come through your mic input.
VoxBooster operates as a WASAPI virtual microphone on Windows 10 and 11, which means it works with Discord, games, OBS, and any application that can select a microphone input. It does not require kernel driver installation, which keeps it compatible with anti-cheat systems in competitive games.
How to Set Up a Pennywise Voice Changer in VoxBooster
Here is the full setup process for getting the IT clown voice working live:
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Download and install VoxBooster. The installer registers a virtual audio device without requiring admin-level kernel access.
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Open VoxBooster and select your physical microphone as the input source in the app’s settings panel.
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Select your physical mic as input in VoxBooster. The app’s virtual microphone output will appear as “VoxBooster Microphone” in your system’s audio devices list.
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Set Discord (or your game/streaming app) to use VoxBooster Microphone as its input device. On Discord: User Settings > Voice & Video > Input Device > VoxBooster Microphone.
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Build your Pennywise preset. Apply pitch shift (-3 semitones for Curry, -5 for Skarsgård), configure EQ according to the tables above, add reverb, and fine-tune saturation.
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Save the preset and assign it to a hotkey. This lets you toggle the Pennywise effect on and off mid-conversation or mid-stream without opening the app.
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Test with a friend on Discord before going live. Ask them to give you honest feedback on whether it sounds convincing or just “lowered and distorted.” The sing-song delivery will need practice separately.
For more on setting up voice effects for roleplay scenarios, see the guide on [voice changer roleplay](INTERNAL: /blog/voice-changer-roleplay) which covers character voice consistency across long sessions.
Clown Voice Changer for Specific Use Cases
Halloween Pranks and Prank Calls
The Pennywise voice works particularly well for phone-based pranks because the reverb adds the spatial quality that makes it feel genuinely otherworldly. Keep calls short — the effect is most impactful in the first 20-30 seconds before the other person starts analyzing what they are hearing.
For group prank sessions, pair the voice with a soundboard containing IT-specific audio cues: the carnival music motif, the balloon sounds, the “beep beep” phrase. A real-time soundboard with hotkey triggering — like the one built into VoxBooster — lets you add these cues without switching windows mid-call.
TikTok and Short-Form Horror Content
TikTok horror creators have built significant audiences using character voice effects. The Pennywise voice works particularly well paired with:
- Close-up camera angles in low-key lighting
- Slow narrative build with the voice starting quiet and controlled (Curry-style) then escalating
- Strategic silence before a line delivery — the pause makes the voice hit harder
- Minimal background music or complete silence (the voice should dominate the mix)
For TikTok use, you can either record live through a virtual mic into your recording software, or apply the pitch and EQ effects in post using your phone’s editing app or a desktop DAW.
Horror Roleplay and Tabletop Gaming
For tabletop gaming groups using Discord for remote sessions, or horror roleplay scenarios on gaming platforms, the Pennywise voice adds significant atmosphere. Use the [ghost voice effect](INTERNAL: /blog/ghost-voice-effect) guide as a starting point for layering multiple horror character voices into a single session — the principles of reverb tail, low pitch, and mid-range resonance apply across multiple character types.
The [hacker voice changer guide](INTERNAL: /blog/hacker-voice-changer-guide) also covers some of the same distortion and robotic-quality settings that can be combined with Pennywise elements for a more custom villain voice.
Streaming and Gaming
For streamers, the Pennywise voice is effective during horror game streams (particularly IT-themed streams around Halloween) or as a character voice for a recurring on-stream persona. The key is:
- Assign the preset to a hotkey so you can switch cleanly
- Have a “normal voice” fallback preset on a second hotkey
- Use the voice sparingly — it has more impact when it appears unexpectedly than when it is your constant delivery
Voice Effect Combinations for Deeper Customization
Beyond the two core Pennywise templates, you can build variations by combining elements:
“Ancient IT” voice — maximum reverb (40% wet, 3-second decay), -5 semitones, heavy sub-bass boost. Emphasizes the ancient entity aspect over the circus clown character.
“Playful clown” voice — lighter pitch shift (-1 to -2 semitones), minimal reverb, increased rasp, and more moderate EQ. Good for non-horror prank contexts where full horror-mode feels too aggressive.
“Hybrid 1990/2017” voice — -3 to -4 semitones (middle ground), Curry-style theatrical delivery with Skarsgård-level reverb. A good default for users who want one setting that covers both references.
Pair any of these with a soundboard for maximum impact. A [bass boosted voice changer](INTERNAL: /blog/bass-boosted-voice-changer) effect stacked with the reverb and pitch settings described above can push the sub-bass presence of the 2017 version to genuinely unsettling territory.
Comparison: Pennywise Voice Changers Available
| Tool | Real-Time | Formant Control | Hotkeys | Platform | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VoxBooster | Yes | Yes | Yes | Windows 10/11 | Free trial, paid plans |
| Voicemod | Yes | Limited | Yes | Windows, Mac | Freemium |
| MorphVOX | Yes | No | Yes | Windows | Paid |
| Clownfish | Yes | No | Limited | Windows | Free |
| Voice.ai | Yes | Yes | Yes | Windows, Mac | Freemium |
| Audacity + EQ | No (post only) | No | No | Cross-platform | Free |
For live use, the real-time column is the non-negotiable filter. For convincing Skarsgård-style deep pitch shifts, formant control matters — without it, -5 semitones tends to sound artificially lowered rather than genuinely deep.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a Pennywise voice changer do?
A Pennywise voice changer processes your microphone input in real time to replicate the IT clown’s signature sound — lowered pitch, raspy resonance, and exaggerated sing-song inflection. Good tools let you apply this effect during live Discord calls, gaming sessions, or stream broadcasts without post-production editing.
What pitch setting makes a voice sound like Pennywise?
Tim Curry’s 1990 version sits roughly -2 to -3 semitones below a natural male voice with added mid-range rasp. Bill Skarsgård’s 2017 version requires a deeper shift of -4 to -5 semitones, a nasal mid-boost around 800 Hz to 1.2 kHz, and a wet reverb tail to capture the hollow, theatrical quality.
Can I use a clown voice changer for Discord without getting banned?
Yes. Real-time voice changers that route audio through a virtual microphone — rather than hooking into Discord’s audio engine directly — are generally safe. VoxBooster creates a standard WASAPI virtual mic that Discord sees as a normal audio device, so there are no ToS violations or anti-cheat conflicts.
Is there a free Pennywise voice effect?
Most real-time voice changers offer a free trial that includes character voice presets. Voicemod and VoxBooster both offer trial periods. Pure software tricks using pitch shift and EQ in a DAW can approximate the effect for free, but they only work on recorded audio, not live calls or streams.
Which IT version is harder to replicate — Tim Curry or Bill Skarsgård?
Bill Skarsgård’s 2017 performance is harder to replicate because it combines a very deep fundamental, a deliberately childlike sing-song pattern that breaks unpredictably, and a wet reverb quality. Tim Curry’s version is more accessible — it sits in a natural baritone range with controlled rasp and a theatrical, almost vaudeville cadence.
Can I use a Pennywise voice changer for TikTok horror content?
Yes, and it works well for TikTok. Record your voiceover using a real-time voice changer routed to your audio interface or recording software, or apply the effect in post-production on the recorded clip. TikTok horror creators often combine the voice effect with slow-zoom visuals and minimal SFX to maximize impact.
What is the best clown voice changer for streaming?
The best clown voice changer for streaming is one that works as a virtual microphone, has low enough latency not to throw off your timing, and lets you toggle effects via hotkey. VoxBooster supports hotkey-triggered voice presets, making it practical to switch in and out of the Pennywise effect mid-stream without reaching for a settings panel.
Conclusion
The Pennywise voice changer effect is technically achievable for both IT versions, but they require meaningfully different approaches. Tim Curry’s 1990 performance is more accessible — a moderate pitch shift, controlled rasp, and theatrical delivery gets you most of the way there. Bill Skarsgård’s 2017 version demands more from your processing chain (deeper pitch shift, formant control, substantial reverb) and more from your delivery (the sing-song rhythm has to be practiced, not just enabled).
For any live use — Discord calls, gaming, streaming — you need a real-time voice changer with virtual microphone output. The post-production approach works for pre-recorded content only. If you want to build a full horror character voice toolkit, the principles here extend naturally: the same pitch, reverb, and resonance concepts covered in the [ghost voice effect](INTERNAL: /blog/ghost-voice-effect) and [hacker voice changer guide](INTERNAL: /blog/hacker-voice-changer-guide) posts apply to the full range of horror character voices.
VoxBooster includes a 3-day free trial with no credit card required. The Windows client installs without kernel drivers, presents a standard virtual mic to all your apps, and lets you build and hotkey-assign custom character voice presets — including both versions of the IT clown, side by side.
Download VoxBooster — free 3-day trial, no credit card required.